Hi folks!
A reminder, if you’re staying on the day to day schedule, the challenge you’re turning in today by noon central time is for Challenge 24.
Then you move on to work on Challenge 25, which you turn in by noon central time tomorrow.
Whatever challenge you’re turning in, for present or future days, just make sure you tag it with the right number :) That’ll help my sorting here in the flurry of the last week. Thanks!
Initial numbers on yesterday’s submissions for Challenge 23 look like this:
71 playwrights with material totaling 243 pages
(or the equivalent of two full-length plays with a couple of extra pages to spare)
You folks are remarkably consistent! Keep up the good work :)
(1 of 2)
Again, I’m sending you two prompts from the future again today, so you can work ahead for the holiday weekend if you wish.
(Remember, you don’t have to work ahead, you can just keep plugging along day by day if that’s what’s working for you. I’m just giving you the opportunity to bank a day or so ahead of time if you want to take some holiday time off and not get tripped up here in the home stretch but do writing for the full 30 days. You don’t have to work ahead if you don’t want to. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and we’re rounding the final turn :)
This prompt is the one you would be writing Thursday 11/27 to be turned in on Friday 11/28 by noon Central Time, but just fill out the Google form and tag it for prompt 27 and you can turn it early and I’ll credit it ahead.
And of course, you can always use the mini-play at the bottom of the email and blog post as an escape hatch for the day’s writing.
Always remember, if you miss one day, don’t beat yourself up, just write again the next day.
Let’s get you that first writing prompt of the day…
Including this daily prompt, there are only four left to share with you before our work is completed for the month.
Well done, everybody!
We can all see the end of November dead ahead on Sunday,
with the last work to be turned in by noon Central time on Monday, December 1st.
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Challenge #27 - Sidewalk Poetry & The Whimsical Astronaut
Write Thursday, November 27th - or earlier if you like
Due: Friday, November 28th, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)
Recently, I ran across two unexpected sources of unsolicited advice and/or inspiration.
As often happens when I’m on a run on the weekends, I invariably find something that I hadn’t noticed before.
Two things had to do with the sidewalk around my regular route. One of them is singular and I don’t actually know the source of it. But someone somehow arranged to imprint the stencil of the following words directly into wet cement that later dried permanently into a section of the sidewalk. The words said:
“I don’t know enough about balance to tell you how to do it
I think, though, it’s in the trying and the letting go
that the scales measuring right and wrong - quiver and stand still”
(Photo of the sidewalk message can be found here on the blog.)
This isn’t spray-painted or carved into the sidewalk. It’s like some kind of giant poetry cookie cutter was placed there for the sidewalk to form around. Unsigned. No idea who did it or why.
In the same vein, a less mysterious person, a poet going by the name of Boots, spray painted stencils of two of their messages onto sidewalk in the same area.
One said, “Your best life won’t seek validation.”
The other said, “Accept people for who they are. Expecting them to change will only cost you peace.”
Apparently Boots isn’t a local. According to their instagram, they’re based out of Chicago and travel the country, leaving these words of hers behind wherever she goes, including a stop in Minneapolis.
Her profile says, “I write poetry, travel, spray paint sidewalks, explore abandoned places, & give unsolicited advice”
Other bits of spray painted advice to be found on sidewalks and lamp posts around the country include:
“No one is busier than someone who is not interested in you.”
“Feeling aren’t that complicated. They either want you or they don’t.”
“Imagine the love we could all have if we left our egos at the door.”
“Stop settling for less than you deserve just because you’re lonely.”
“We’re all damaged. It’s how we still love with a broken heart that matters”
Another female artist I ran across on Instagram creates images using something I’ve taken to calling the whimsical astronaut. The artist is based in Iran, goes by the name of either Luna or Mahsa, and since they’re a digital artist/AI designer, I immediately begin to wonder whether they’re real or not. (Mention of AI in general prompts all kinds of misgivings.) Still, this account has a pretty long trail for someone who was (potentially) born yesterday, and their work is funny, so give it a look.
The basics, whether they’re still images or video, is someone, face unseen, dressed in a full astronaut suit, complete with closed helmet. Sometimes, I think we’re meant to think it’s the artist herself who’s in the astronaut uniform, sometimes it could be literally anyone.
Sometimes the astronaut is sitting on a chair or a park bench, sometimes it’s inside a record store or bookstore or laundromat or apartment. If they’re sitting they might be reading a newspaper, a book or scrolling on their phone. And there’s a sign next to where they’re sitting, or sometimes it’s in their lap. Sometimes they’re standing in the middle of the road, holding up a sign for attention, or to get a point across. Sometimes they’re spray painting their message on a wall.
The thing I appreciate most about it all is the sense of humor, or resilience, depending on the subject.
I have lost a lot of time scrolling through these images but a selection of my favorites include:
Astronaut sitting on a bench reading a newspaper. A sign next to them says:
“No one’s jealous of you, go take a bath.”
Astronaut sitting on a bench working on their laptop. A sign sits next to them, saying:
“I’m not free tomorrow. I’m expensive everyday.”
Astronaut standing in the middle of a neon lit city street at night holding up a sign declaring:
“Listen up f*cker! You are a magical piece of f*cking stardust and you deserve the f*cking world"
Astronaut sitting on the hood of a car in the middle of a suburban neighborhood with a sign saying:
“But darling, you need music to dance, not a partner”
Astronaut sitting among the library shelves, holding a sign in their lap that reads”:
“I like your weird brain very much!”
Astronaut standing outside a bakery holding out a box of cupcakes, next to sign that says,
“Not all ex’s are bad. Look at me, I’m someone’s ex and I’m the best.”
A Halloween season astronaut sitting on a bench next to their friend the ghost who’s eating pizza under a neon sign that reads:
“Oh sweetie, monsters are real and they look like people”
Astronaut standing in the middle of a busy city street at night, holding a sign that says:
“Forget nudes. Send me a photo of your bookshelves.”
Astronaut sitting on a cabinet reading a book, between a lamp and an old-fashioned TV set, with framed poster behind them saying:
“I love acting dumb. It helps me to see people’s real intentions”
Astronaut sitting on a folding chair in the middle of the street, scrolling through their phone, next to sign on an easel that says:
“Tell me about the things you think don’t matter to anyone else.”
Astronaut taking a selfie in front a of spray painted wall that says,
“When they say you can’t do it, do it twice and take pics!”
From behind, two astronauts sitting side by side on a bench in the middle of a field of cows, with hills and mountains in the distance at sunset. Next to them a sign reads:
“Imagine you and me as cows in Switzerland enjoying the view and saying “moo” every day”
Something about the melancholy loneliness and the out of context nature of the astronaut suit and the messages fascinates me and makes me smile, and sit and think for a bit. There are so, so many more images, give the feed a look.
Write a scene duplicating how the images or the messages make you feel.
Or ruminate on the sidewalk poetry.
Or think about what makes someone turn into a traveling sidewalk poet, or don an astronaut uniform to express themselves. What is someone who communicates or connects with either of those artists like? Or are they just a catalyst, an observer, of their effects on other people’s lives? Does anyone ever thank them, or damn them, and how could they?
Whatever strikes your fancy.
And if none of that doesn’t do it for you, you can always ignore this prompt and do whatever you want, just like every other day in November.
Just write. Something.
***********************
If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can
try 2021’s challenge #27: She Blinded Me With Science
Or try 2022’s challenge #27: Code Words
Or try 2023’s Challenge #27: The Ex Files (from Threshold Theater’s co-founder and Technical Director Nick Mrozek)
Or try 2024’s challenge #27: …Until All You Can Remember Is A Name
Or, you know, just ignore the prompts altogether and write whatever you want - as long as you’re writing and turning it in by the deadline, that’s all that matters for the challenge :)
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How to submit your work for Challenge #27
We’re streamlining the process this year with a Google form,
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdy-wyjz-IITaNsOkXM1zVQu_yrt_o7E4Vp2eQnr-8VNnu49w/viewform?usp=header
but you still have multiple options for how you submit your playwriting output for the day.
After you enter the required fields of
email,
name,
challenge number (for today, that’d be 27 :)
and page count,
you can submit your writing in one of four ways:
Save your script as a PDF or Word Doc and upload that document to the Google form.
OR
Post
your script online (on your personal website, as a blog post, or as a
Google doc) and put a link to that online script in the Google form.
OR
Copy/paste your work from another source directly into the Google form
OR
Type directly into the Google form.
(Whichever option you choose, you can leave the other ones blank.)
Write Thursday, November 27th - or earlier if you like
Again, this is: Due: Friday, November 28th, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)
***********************
And because we call can get in our own way so easily, here’s some words of reassurance on the basics of this month:
Friendly Reminders - Answers To Common Questions:
(Follow the links to read me expounding on these items :)
Don’t Stress about November 27th (however you recognize the holiday weekend) - 2025 edition
Don’t Stress About Writing A Full Play
Don’t Stress About Format
Don’t Stress About Sticking To The Writing Prompt
No. Really. I Mean It. Don’t Stress About Sticking To The Writing Prompt
Don’t Stress About Finishing An Idea (You Can Add Later)
Don’t Stress About “Succeeding” or “Failing”
Don’t Stress About What You’re Turning In Each Day
******************************
And, just to reassure you, no, we are not going to be sticklers about you following these directions down to the minutest detail - the important thing is that you write, and then that you share it with us, so we can keep track of who’s writing every day.
Also, no, there is no penalty for finishing and submitting early - but it also isn’t a race, so give yourself all the time up til 12 noon Central Time on Friday to write if you need it. When you’re done, you’re done.
Again, remember, it doesn’t need to be great, it doesn’t even need to be responding to this prompt (the prompt is just there so you’re not staring at a blank screen to start with no idea what to write about :)
Doesn't even need to be complete - you could have the beginning or the middle or the end of an idea, maybe two out of three but not all, that's still fine. This is all about getting things started, you can write more later.
You have 3 more days to build on whatever you come up with today, if you want.
Just get anything on the page, even if won't make sense to anyone else, as long as it makes sense to you.
It just needs to be something.
********************************
And that something can be:
Lights up.
A turkey runs for its life across the stage.
Followed by a potato, also running for its life.
Followed by a squash, also running for its life.
Followed by a box of stuffing, also running for its life.
Followed by a cranberry, also running for its life.
The End
That’s always your escape hatch, every day.
That’s your base line.
Build on it.
Have fun.
Don’t stress.
Make an impulsive decision and run with it.
Breathe.
You’ve got the day.
Just write.
And take good care of yourselves, and each other.
Matthew A. Everett
Literary Director
Threshold Theater
(he/him/his)
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